Sydney's swelling pool of poison

By Tim Dick

August 23, 2006 — 10.00am

Have you been affected by the contamination? Send information, photos or videos to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764) oremailus.

TENS of thousands of Sydney residents have been banned from using groundwater for anything, from filling swimming pools to watering gardens, as a wave of industrial contamination spreads north from Botany Bay.

From Surry Hills to Tempe and across to Phillip Bay, residents were permanently prohibited yesterday from using any water taken from the ground.

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The effect of eight former industrial sites near Botany and the Alexandria Canal - in addition to the plume from the Orica chemical plant - forced the complete residential ban on using groundwater.

Four of the sites have already been cleaned up - including an old rubbish tip, power station and petrol station - while four more are undergoing remedial work, including metal works and a dry cleaners.

But the lasting effects of pollutants from the sites mean the aquifer below much of inner Sydney and the eastern suburbs is off-limits. The heavy industrial use has led to solvents, petrol, diesel, lead and arsenic contaminating the aquifer.

At least 13 additional suburbs are now affected. The Government said its decision to impose the ban was prompted by the combined effect of a century of heavy industry and the drought leading more people to use groundwater.

Residents are banned from using bore water for drinking, filling swimming pools and washing windows. Even watering gardens or washing cars with the groundwater is now forbidden.

While the Government said only 28 licensed home bore users were affected, many more unlicensed users might be covered by the ban. Both legal and illegal users were told to stop drawing groundwater now.

The ban was endorsed by cabinet yesterday. The Government denied it was sparked by any new specific testing, but by a report it received on Monday.

It comes soon after Sydney Harbour was closed to fishing because of dioxins, and amid continuing controversy over the $165 million clean-up of the Orica site.

Factories, parks and golf courses are still able to tap their bores for water, but they now have to test them at least once a year to see if the water is safe to use.

The Minister for Natural Resources, Ian Macdonald, said yesterday that it was common knowledge that the area had extensive industry for a century.

"As our knowledge of groundwater contamination and movements increases, and given the history of the area, we need to extend our campaign to minimise the risk to public health," he said.

Mr Macdonald said residents would receive letters in the next few days, and would be offered free testing for licensed bores. A hotline has been set up for those with health concerns (1800 237 012).

That did not satisfy the Greens MP Ian Cohen who accused the Government of sitting on its hands. "The contamination of the Botany Sands aquifer is obviously far worse than residents of inner Sydney were led to believe," he said.

He called on the Government to pay for residents to be tested for "potential adverse health effects", saying general practitioners did not have the expertise to deal with industrial poisoning.

The Opposition environment spokesman, Michael Richardson, said the widened ban was further proof of the Government's poor record in managing pollution in the Sydney basin.

"These are serious issues and I just don't think the Government has been serious about them," he said.